Scolded into silence

SUKKUR: Teachers who brought up the issue of mismanagement in the Workers Model School in Sukkur have been taken to task by the administration.

Teachers at the school had brought up issues of increments, seniority and mismanagement in the school. According to them, they have not been getting increments in their salaries or promotions. Government employees in the other provinces got their increments and promotions this year, the teachers alleged, demanding that they should be given similar benefits. They also said that workers who have been working on contract for a long time should be regularised.

A delegation of these teachers also went to the federal minister Syed Khushid Ahmed Shah, an MNA from Sukkur, when he came to visit last week. However, they were unable to meet the minister.

When the school administration found out about the attempted meeting, they were less than pleased. They got back at the teachers by sending them a warning. According to the notification, the teachers were told that their attempt to meet the federal minister was unwarranted and if such an act was repeated, the management would carry out an inquiry against them.

Unfair enrolment accusations

Meanwhile, other than the teachers’ problem, the school is also reputed to be enrolling all children but those for whom the school is meant for. The Workers Model School in Sukkur’s SITE area was established for the particular purpose of providing education to labourers’ children. Officials at the school alleged that children of government officials, such as former nazims, have been admitted into the school while the offspring of labourers have been denied admission with the excuse that there is just no room for more students.

After this was report was published in the newspaper last week, the school management immediately pulled up its barriers and told the staff not to reveal information about the school to the media.

However, the news report did not help in convincing the management to do something about the issue. Complaints about unfair enrolment have been sent to the provincial minister for labour and other higher officials but the people have yet to receive a positive response from the government.

Many of the children living in the Labour Colony, situated close to the school, are not getting any education. According to residents of the colony, during the summer vacations, which have recently commenced, some persons have stolen furniture and transformers belonging to the school. Nobody is looking into this, they complained.

Those labourers who were unable to get their children admitted into the school have protested and said that an inquiry should be carried out to determine whether the enrolment process is fair or not. Meanwhile, the school administrator Sabir Hussain Qambro said that only those students that are verified by the factory management are admitted to the school.

“There is not so much space in the school that all labourers’ children can be admitted,” he said, adding that the entire issue had been created by those labourers whose children did not get admission in the school.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2010.